I'm the girl who would be dead if I hadn't received a new heart. That may be blunt, but it's the truth, and now my goal is to spread the word about the importance of organ donation.

Kids at Fairview High School, my school, know that when they get their licenses for the first time, I'm going to hound them and ask if they checked the box to be an organ donor. If they didn't, I ask them, "Why not?" And then I tell them my story.

When I was 9, my brother and I got pneumonia. When we went in for chest X-rays, the radiologist saw something on the film and told my parents I needed to see a cardiologist. Sure enough, I was diagnosed with an enlarged heart, the result of a disease called restrictive cardiomyopathy, in which the heart stiffens and doesn't pump blood effectively.

I remember sitting in the doctor's office for hours just wanting to go back to school. The doctors told my parents that while my condition was serious, it wasn't yet life-threatening, and so they would keep a close eye on me.

Even though I was told there was something wrong with me, I didn't really believe it because I was such an active kid, always playing sports, swimming, running around with my friends. And though I would get winded running or climbing stairs, I thought everyone got winded running or climbing stairs. It was normal for me.

So I continued this way for another two years until around age 11 when I went back to Pittsburgh for a checkup. The doctors told my parents my condition had worsened, and it was time for me to be placed on the transplant list. I remember my parents in tears as they came out of the meeting with the doctors.

But still I was in denial that I needed a new heart. Actually, I was angry. I was invincible in my mind, even though I was actually pretty sick.

Two weeks later, however, I got off the couch, saw black and passed out, completely crumpling to the floor. That was the first time I had ever fainted, and I'll admit it was scary. My parents called 911, and an ambulance transported me all the way back to Pittsburgh, where I stayed until my transplant.

On May 4, 2007, I received the heart of a 31-year-old male. Six years later I am absolutely healthy and have been feeling great ever since the transplant. I play sports such as tennis and never get winded anymore. It is so awesome that I was given a second chance to live. And I want the 8,400 people waiting for organs in Pennsylvania to have that same chance.

Every year, almost 500 people in Pennsylvania die waiting for an organ. But we can change that. There's new legislation in Harrisburg I'm hoping will pass this fall. It's called the Donate Life PA Act (House Bill 30), and it's designed to increase education about organ donation at nursing schools, medical schools, high schools and colleges in Pennsylvania.

I'm a huge advocate of this bill, and I'm a huge advocate for organ donation, volunteering much of my time with C.O.R.E. in Pittsburgh -- the Center for Organ Recovery & Education.

I want everyone around me to be an organ donor, so I spend a lot of time as a C.O.R.E. advocate, speaking at health fairs, making appearances at community events and even lecturing in the health classes at my school.

The reality is I wouldn't be here without my donor. Even though I don't know his name, I feel I know him already, and I want to make him proud. My goal is to spread the word about organ donation and how one person agreeing to be an organ donor can, in turn, help eight other people.

I'm known as the girl who received a heart transplant, and that's OK with me. But I also want to be known as the girl who made a difference. So please reach out to our Erie County legislators and urge them to support the Donate Life PA Act, for me and for the thousands of people just like me still waiting for a lifesaving organ.

BRITTANY GRIMM, 18, the daughter of Butch and Colleen Grimm, is a senior at Fairview High School.